Acceptance of Highly Automated Vehicles: The Role of Facilitating Condition, Technology Anxiety, Social Influence and Trust

Highly automated vehicles (level 4) will be launched soon. This study explored factors affecting the acceptance of level 4 automated vehicles (AV) amongst the public. The technology acceptance model (TAM), technology anxiety (TA), social influence (SI), facilitating condition (FC) and trust (TR) were integrated to develop a level 4 AV acceptance model. A web-based questionnaire was used for data collection from 693 Chinese participants. Structural equation modelling was utilized to analyze the collected data. The results showed that TAM is applicable to explain level 4 AV acceptance amongst the public. The effects of FC on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (PU) are positive. TA negatively influences PU. SI positively influences PU and behavioural intention to use AVs. TR positively influences attitude towards using AVs and is positively determined by PU. Based on the results, some practical implications for increasing the use of level 4 AVs amongst the public were provided.